Frankly, grocery shopping sucks. It’s that errand we all have to do and yet the grocery industry, in an effort to maximize volume, has really put the burden of the experience of the customer. One of the best exercises I did while writing my business plan was a pro/con list of my industry. Unless something was a benefit to the customer experience as well as the bottom line, I didn’t include it in my business model. For example, does anyone actually need a hundred BBQ sauces to choose from? No; and decreasing choice while using Own Brand products to build exclusive customer value is fundamentally why Costco and Trader Joes rank so high in customer satisfaction surveys. I frequently describe Kitchen & Market as “Dean & Deluca and Trader Joes made a Blue Apron baby” because it so perfectly incapsulates what we are trying to achieve. Who doesn’t want a well curated corner grocery store in their neighborhood that helps answer the question “What’s for dinner?” by offering restaurant quality meal kits, a unique and delicious selection of prepared products made from scratch alongside premium local brands.
I very much stumbled into it. As a young single mom, I needed a paycheck and health insurance. Next thing I knew I was selling canned tuna and it became clear very quickly that I was good at it. From there, I used that experience to segue myself into the Private Label grocery industry and had a blast building programs with the 365 team at Whole Foods, the Simple Truth team at Kroger as well as projects with quite a few other major national retailers. It was fun, challenging and exciting. I got to travel the world working with retailers and suppliers, identifying food trends and launching programs that were pretty groundbreaking at the time (coconut water at Whole Foods was a fun one!!). I learned so much about retailing, manufacturing and supply chain logistics during that time and in the process became the biggest grocery nerd you will probably ever meet. So building a private label grocery chain from the ground up feels very much like it was a logical next step in my career.
I’ve been told many times that the first five years of being an entrepreneur are the most challenging so I am looking forward to having that stage behind me but my guess is that it is similar to raising children, the challenges don’t go away, they just change. It's our job to adjust and react accordingly. My goal, is to prove that there is intrinsic value in helping our customers feed the people they care about. Whether it’s your friends over for dinner or a weeknight family meal I want you to be able to count on Kitchen & Market to make it easy and delicious, regardless of your comfort level in the kitchen. Our customers regularly say they can’t imagine life without Kitchen & Market because they are cooking more and eating better. That by far is my favorite thing to hear.
As I walked into a conference room, easily fifteen years younger and also the only woman in the room, a gentleman leaned over and simply whispered “ask questions and don’t be intimidated”. Those words have served me well many many times over.
Never show up late with a cup of coffee in your hand. It’s not about the coffee.
Martha Stewart. Smart, funny, groundbreaking and a damn good cook.
My Apple watch.
D2C is a challenging business model and I am starting to see some F&B businesses struggling in the post-Covid Instagram marketplace so I am keeping my eye out to see what brands survive and even better, thrive.
